Panasonic Next-Gen Blu-ray Player Due Week of 11/12

Panasonic’s next-generation Blu-ray Disc player will reach retail shelves the week of Nov. 12 with a $499.95 price-tag and a bevy of tech firsts, said the company.

The DMP-BD30, which replaces the $599 DMP-BD10, will be the industry’s first player to use support Final Standard Profile, which adds enhanced features to Blu-ray media produced using BD-ROM Profile 1 Version 1.1 standards. According to Alberto Reggiani, national marketing manager, DVD-VCR, this means that the BD30 is the first player endowed with the ability to fully display Picture-in-Picture-embedded Blu-ray software. It is also the first Blu-ray player on the market to carry an SD Memory Card slot.

The BD30’s chassis is one inch shallower than its predecessor and was able to be trimmed by one inch in height as well because it uses the Panasonic-developed UniPhier chip, which bundles both image and sound-quality circuits together to save space. The unit will also be able to play discs burned in high-definition camcorders that record in the AVCHD format, and can play CDs as background accompaniment to still-image slide shows run from SD cards.